Vanquished
by DeliriumCanidae
Summary: Something is plaguing the worlds. Are they simply wounded, or are they dying? And what is the new world that suddenly appeared on the map? Questions to ponder, all while a war wages, unknown to anyone Don't own KH Possible char. death, probable OOC
1. Prologue

"Sora! Riku!" Kairi raced across the beach, the bottle clutched tightly against her chest as her two best friends came into view, turning to see her as she called them.

"Hey, what's up?" Sora asked as Kairi came to a stop, bending over to catch her breath and holding out the bottle.

"Look."

"From the King?" Sora grabbed the bottle as soon as he saw the King's crest, like a drowning man grabbed onto a life line, pulling out the cork and pouring the message into his hand. Riku and Kairi clustered closer to the brunette, reading the note over his shoulders.

_My Dear Friends,_

_Trust me when I say that I'm truly sorry to have to ask for your help so soon, but after such a long absence, I must attend to things of my own at the castle._

_Something is wrong with the worlds. I'm not sure what, but they seem almost like they're dying or fading away. I can't investigate this myself, and so, my friends, I ask you. Please, find out what is happening to the worlds before something awful happens._

_The Door knows the way._

_King Mickey._

Slowly, the three friends looked between each other.

"Something happening to the worlds. What do you think he means?" Sora asked. After all, if something was happening to the worlds, wouldn't it be happening on the Islands, too?

"What door?" Kairi asked, re-reading the last line of the message.

"The door in our secret place," Riku replied. The same door that had started everything, not even two years ago. It seemed like so much longer; nearly eternity.

"So, up for another adventure, you two?" Sora asked, looking from one to the other. Kairi grinned brightly and a smile slowly crossed Riku's face.

"I think we can manage it," Riku said, and Kairi nodded, adding, "First thing tomorrow, we go through the door?"

"Right. I'll meet you both there tomorrow morning!" Sora bounded off, back the way he had come.

--

"So, you guys ready?" Way to the Dawn appeared in Riku's hand.

"Definitely." Kingdom Key appeared in Sora's, and Pride of Friendship appeared for Kairi.

As one, they aimed their Keyblades at the door. Three separate beams of light shot out of them, joining into one before striking the door. The tell-tale click sounded through the cave, and the door swung open.


	2. Chapter One

_AN: I like short chapters. And if the italics don't tip you off, this takes place in the past._

_And to be clear; I may not own the original Keyblades, but I do own Twilight's Exile, Hell Hath No Fury, and the Keyblade Spirits were my idea. And I had to name Kairi's flowery Keyblade._

_--_

"_Ultima, are you positive that this is a good idea?" Wary, Way to the Dawn walked at Ultima's side, Kingdom Key and Pride of Friendship trailing a short way back._

"_Of course it is. Those traitors will get what's coming to them."_

"_But what did they do that's so horrible?" Kingdom Key asked, stepping up to Ultima's other side. Ultima slid her frigid gaze towards him, as if to merely ask that question was a crime._

"_Keyblade spirits are here to assist heroes. A Nobody cannot be a hero. They don't seem to see it that way, and so they've chosen to try to _save _those...abominations."_

"_Ah, right...I see." Though, truly, Kingdom Key hardly saw what was wrong. Twilight's Exile and Hell Hath No Fury weren't hurting anything. They had created a new world; a new underworld, really. And simultaneously, Ultima was trying to de-construct it. Kingdom Key would keep quiet, though. It was best not to anger Ultima._

* * *

_Hell Hath No Fury sat rigidly in his throne, Twilight's Exile pacing before him. "Things will start falling apart around us all at this rate!"_

"_I know, Twilight, but there isn't much we can do."_

"_She's a demigod! She should know that focusing so much of her effort on one thing could be catastrophic! Our job is to keep the worlds balanced; she's not doing a very good job." Twilight's Exile would have continued his rant, but suddenly the miasma that acted as a throne room parted, and a familiar being entered._

"_Oh, look! It's her pet!" Twilight's Exile exclaimed, taking a step closer to Kingdom Key. Hell Hath No Fury held up a hand, stopping the other._

"_Calm down, Twilight. Let's see why he's here." He looked expectantly at Kingdom Key._

"_Well...I'm here to help. I'm not sure how, but...in any way I can."_

* * *

"_This is an outrage!"_

"_Ultima, what's wrong?" Pride of Friendship asked hesitantly, resisting the urge to hide behind Way to the Dawn. Ultima was dangerous at the best of times. When she was angry, being near her was a hazard._

"_That abomination of a world has gotten stronger! That means someone is helping them!" Enraged, Ultima turned to face her trio of followers. "You three are the only three strong enough to help resist me. Tell me; who? Make things simple and punishment will be light."_

_Kingdom Key looked anxiously at the group, briefly meeting Way to the Dawn's gaze. He was about to step forward, but someone else did first._

"_It was me, Ultima. You have my sincerest apologies for defying you, but I didn't think it was right. Now I know it was a mistake."_

"_You, Way to the Dawn? My, what a surprise this is." Ultima clamped a hand down on Way to the Dawn's shoulder, slowly leading him out. Her voice took on a sickly sweet edge as she added, "Be thankful you're one of my favorites, or you'd be much worse off."_

_The agonized screams that echoed through the temple would not soon leave the memories of Kingdom Key or Pride of Friendship._

* * *

"_I can't keep helping you. Way to the Dawn's already taken the blame for me once. It won't work a second time."_

"_We know, Kingdom Key. You're free to go. Thank you for helping us while you could, though." Twilight's Exile seemed understanding enough. Kingdom Key couldn't tell if they were mad, but it didn't matter. He couldn't put anyone else through what Way to the Dawn had gone through for him._

"_Thank you." Falling silent, Kingdom Key stepped back, the miasma swirling around him, and he vanished into it._

* * *

"_We're on our own again, Hell Hath." Twilight's Exile sounded resigned, leaning against the back of Hell Hath No Fury's throne._

"_We can do this without help. We had for awhile, so we can again. She'll have to stop eventually."_

"_Hopefully. The worlds can only withstand so much of her temper tantrum."_


	3. Chapter Two

AN: This took a freakishly long time. Writer's block does that. And besides that, I had to re-write this chapter like...twice. 'Cause I hated it. I still think it sucks, but I honestly don't think it'll get any better. The next chapter is finished already, though. And it's much better.

* * *

The door—long unused—creaked open slowly, releasing Sora, Riku, and Kairi into,

"Radiant Garden?" Admittedly, Sora wasn't expecting to end up here. He had expected to end up at the King's castle.

Then he noticed Leon, watching them expectantly from across the courtyard, seeming completely unsurprised by the doorway that had just appeared and vanished in front of him (then again, some very strange things had happened here in the past).

A moment after that, he noticed what Leon was leaning against.

"The Gummi ship!"

As the trio rushed over, Leon stepped away from the ship, meeting them half way.

"The King said you would come here for this." And thus explained the lack of surprise at the random doorway; if the King was involved, anything could happen.

"So…is that the only reason the door opened here?" Sora asked, thinking that a bit odd. If the situation was as urgent as the King's letter had implied, wouldn't they have ended up where they were needed?

Leon looked slightly uncomfortable for half a moment. "You should probably see this."

Standing upon the bailey and looking out at the Crystal Fissure, the trio could do little else but gape. Even Kairi; she hadn't even been here before, but she had heard stories from Sora about how beautiful the Fissure had been.

The bright, dazzling blue stone that had once made up the Fissure had faded and cracked, turning into pale, chipped gray rock. In the distance, where the Heartless Castle had been, and it's opposite—Ansem's Castle—had stood, there was nothing, save for a few small mountains of rubble.

"What happened to the castles?" Riku finally inquired, breaking the dazed silence that had settled over the group. Leon simply offered a shrug.

"The same thing that happened to the Fissure, we assume. One day they were normal, and then the next they completely collapsed."

"Has anything else happened?" Sora asked, curious as to what else was in store for them. Their adventures never seemed to be normal; they could never complain of boredom, at any rate, at least.

"Not that anyone's noticed, but no one thought anything was off about the Crystal Fissure or the castles, either."

"I think we should take a look around," Riku proclaimed, sauntering off towards the Fissure.

"This is kind of creepy, guys…" Kairi murmured, sticking close to Sora. The slate gray cliffs rose up around them, like monumental tombstones, on all sides, save for the narrow path they followed. It certainly was a stark contrast to the previously dazzling beauty of the Fissure.

A few rocks skittered across the ground behind them, and all three of them whipped around, Keyblades appearing in a brief flash…just to see a small, mangy cat dart past, pausing only long enough to hiss at them.

"It looks…rabid." Sora's tone was vaguely disturbed. There weren't many animals in Radiant Garden, and those that were there were generally very well taken care of.

"What's happening here?"

"Maybe we should head to a different world. We might get some answers."

Slowly, Sora gave a short nod in answer to Riku's suggestion, and they slowly made their way back to the Gummi ship.

Silently, Sora observed the digital map in front of him, noting that something was peculiarly…off. Something was missing. As his gaze swept past Halloween Town and the Pride Lands, he froze, eyes widening, realization dawning.

"Riku…?"

"Yeah?"

Disturbing the pilot probably wasn't the best idea, but this was an urgent situation.

"Where's Agrabah?"

There was a long moment of silence before Riku set the Gummi ship to autopilot and joined Sora at the map.

Indeed, Agrabah was missing. In its place, there was simply a rapidly spinning ring of dust and debris.

At the edge of the map, something caught Riku's eye.

"What's this?" He pointed to the world, covered by a swirling red fog.

"I don't know. I've never seen it before. Should we check it out?" Sora tried to magnify the new world's image on the map, but all that resulted was a brief burst of static before the screen returned to normal.

Riku returned to the helm. "I'm already on the way."


	4. Chapter Three

AN: This is a really short chapter. Freakishly short, actually. But it has to be, or the suspense at the end would be completely ruined. And so would the entire chapter, actually. I prefer not to sacrifice quality for quantity, and at the moment I actually kinda like this chapter. I probably won't tomorrow, but that's beside the point.

* * *

The new world was bizarre, to say the least.

It consisted of a multitude of islands made of red earth. The islands were not in water, however. Instead, they floated in...nothing. If one looked over the edge, it would be black emptiness as far as the eye could see.

The sky was a pale gray, covered by crimson red clouds that warred for territory with sickly green clouds—presumably storm clouds—and blocked out much of the little light that there was, casting the world in eternal night.

That was not the odd part, though. The completely abnormal part was the part that was completely impossible; the water. Every island, except for the small chunks of sandy red earth connecting each island, was covered in water high enough to go above Riku's knees, and even higher on the other two. The water should have simply poured over the sides of the islands, but somehow it did not.

In the distance, on another island—it looked like the largest from where the trio stood by the Gummi ship—was a forest, entirely made from dead, twisted, blackened trees.

"Where are we?" Sora finally asked after a prolonged moment, taking a few cautious steps forward. Something about this world was foreboding and made him want to turn around and run right back to the ship, but they had to find out if this world was the source of the disturbances. It was a pretty safe bet.

No answer came, but Sora was not expecting one. No one knew where they were; it was a fairly obvious fact.

"Well...let's look around. Those trees might be a good place to start," he suggested, pointing towards the mock up of a forest before he began wading towards it. After a short moment of hesitation, he heard Riku and Kairi following him.

* * *

The forest was no more comforting than any of the other islands. Much less so, actually. After only seven minutes winding through the trees, the trio wanted nothing more than the vacate the area and go to another island.

And so, that was exactly what they did, slowly making their way to the other side of the forest to more dry chunks of rock simply floating between the forest and the next island. Quickly, the three of them hopped from one rock to the next until they got to the next island. It really was not much better than the first one, but it was less closed in and eerie than the trees.

After a few long moments of looking around aimlessly, and a short, "How do we get back to the Gummi ship?" from Sora, Riku heard something. It was a very small something, coming from the trees; nothing more than a stick snapping, but that was definitely something in such a deserted world.

He whirled around to face the forested island, only managing to catch a flash of black out of the corner of his eye before it was gone.

"Did either of you see that?"

"See what?" Kairi asked, looking over her shoulder in the same direction.

"I didn't see anything," Sora added, giving Riku a strange look. "You alright?"

"Yeah...," Riku responded slowly. "I guess this place just has me on edge."

"You're not the only one," Sora replied, turning fully towards the trees with the intention to trek back to the Gummi ship.

That was when the three of them noticed the faint trembling of the ground. It had started the moment they stepped foot off of their ship, but until that very moment it had not been strong enough for any of them to feel it.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked, grabbing Sora's hand as the shaking began to get strong enough to nearly knock them off of their feet.

And then it did, but not in the way one would expect.

The entire island began to turn, tilting towards the abyss below, the water pouring down in a loud rush until it was completely gone. By that point, Sora, Riku, and Kairi were quickly sliding down to unwillingly follow it, trying to grab onto anything they could to stop, or at least slow, their descent, but it took only a minute for the island to turn completely perpendicular to its original position, and by that point they had no hope of grabbing onto anything to save themselves.

Sora clamped his eyes shut, unwilling to see the abyss rushing to meet him. He vaguely heard Riku grunt as if he had hit something and a startled gasp from Kairi, but he was not paying much attention to that.

Right afterwards, however, he felt a hand wrap tightly around his wrist and halt his fall. Thinking Riku had found a way to regain his footing, Sora sighed in relief, but felt all of his momentary relief go crashing down after the water when he heard a disturbingly familiar voice.

"So we meet again, Keyblade Bearer."


End file.
